Be Aware of the Spiders

Moms...I know you try to think of everything.  From making sure your kids have clothes to wear, food to eat and entertainment...you do so much for those babies. 

Something that we don't always think about is checking the house for spiders or getting your house sprayed.  For some reason, this year there are an abundance of brown recluse spiders. 

---

This is a picture of a brown recluse spider...just a little larger than a quarter...but can do so much damage.  One of it's characteristics is the fiddle that is located on the top part of the head.  Two of my sisters have been bitten by one of these at some point in their life and told me it was painful and ate away the skin.

One of my grand daughters, Blythe, was bitten by a brown recluse over memorial day weekend and was critical for a time.  Her mom and dad were so concerned and did all the right things, but once that spider did it's damage, they had to watch it closely.  The doctors had varying diagnosis as to what was going on, which eventually would lead them to take her back to the emergency room.  When the wound began to change dramatically, they knew something just wasn't right.   Below are some of the progression pictures.  Let me caution you that they are rather graphic.

---

She was in the hospital for 3 days with IV antibiotics for the infections caused from the bite and closely monitored.  The medication was hard on her tummy, but she was a trooper.  While she was in the hospital, her brothers and sisters came and did a talent show, which made her smile. 

---

This picture was taking on the day that they released her from the hospital.  She was sooooooooo happy to see her brothers and sisters...who are a constant entertainment for her.  She left the hospital with her finger still being protected with the hand guard as you see in the picture.  She had no idea how many people had been praying for her...she just knew that she was headed home to be with her family.  The prognosis changed from a grim one to there would be no permanent damage to her finger.  Below is what it looked like after being home a couple of days.

---

When we visited with Blythe this past week...this is how we found her.  Happy and a perfectly healed finger.  Wow...all of that caused by the bite of a brown recluse spider.

---